


A friendly flower

by zalil



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff without Plot, M/M, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-27
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 15:51:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17942651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zalil/pseuds/zalil
Summary: Harry meets Draco in the safe zone of the Hogwarts grounds after dark, where everything is different from the usual and anything can happen.AU, written years and years ago, when the series was not yet finished.





	A friendly flower

Harry slowly crept out of the front door of the castle and quickly flitted away before his invisibility cloak caught in the door. He swore. It was raining heavily outside, but Hermione had insisted he needed to go and pluck fluxweed this night, at full moon. She wouldn’t tell him which potion she was going to brew, but apparently it was very important to her. 

Rain trickled down Harry’s neck. He walked faster across the lawn in direction of the Forbidden Forest. He would find the fluxweed only on the edge of the forest– if he was lucky.  
Harry smiled when he passed Hagrid’s Hut. He could see shadows of a fire dancing in the window and hear Hagrid whistling a tune. As his invisibility cloak was soaked and it was sufficiently dark anyway, Harry took it off and hid it under Hagrid’s window. He whispered a quick spell to make his glasses repel the rainwater. Then he continued on his way. He was only a few steps away from the outermost trees when he saw something moving in front of him. In a split second Harry had his wand out and yelled “Stupefy!”

Still moving his mouth on the second syllable, Harry heard someone shout protego and a white flash appeared at the same time. Harry lowered his wand as a silver head appeared out of the darkness. Draco Malfoy stood in front of Harry, wand arm still raised but otherwise completely motionless. 

“What did you do that for, you moron?” Draco asked, lowered his wand and wiped water off his face. Harry noticed he wore only dark trousers, a green jumper and no robes. His clothes were soaked too.

“What are you doing here?” Harry demanded. Why would Draco stand in the rain in the middle of the night, on the edge of the forest at that? His being here was enough to raise Harry’s suspicions.

“Out for a walk,” Draco snarled and grimaced. He stepped forwards until he stood directly in front of Harry. “And what are you doing here?”

Harry sputtered. “None of your business, Malfoy.”

Draco smiled and leaned closer. “Then why should it be your business what I’m doing?”

Harry didn’t know what to say. Draco’s closeness made him uncomfortable. “I was going to get a flower for Hermione,” he said. It was as close to the truth as he could get. 

“Oooh, isn’t that sweet! You are here to pluck a flower for your girlfriend, in the middle of the night and a rainstorm. My, Potter, I can’t decide what would be more insane: if you expected me to believe that or if it were the truth.”

Harry snorted. “Believe what you want. And besides, it’s only a friendly flower.”

Draco shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m still talking to you.”

“Shit happens.” Harry shrugged.

“You say it,” Draco replied and brushed past Harry towards the castle. He lightly hit Harry’s shoulder when he did so and disappeared in the darkness.

For a moment Harry had forgotten what he was here for, but he quickly went in search of that damned ‘flower’ so he could get back into his warm and cosy bed and forget about Draco and why he was still tingly on the place he had touched him. Half an hour later, Harry finally accepted that there was no fluxweed, grabbed his cloak and returned to the castle.

*

Hermione didn’t scold him, but she seemed very disappointed. Apparently the weed only appeared around midnight and at that time Harry had talked to Draco. Harry promised that he’d try it again at the next full moon and Hermione seemed to cheer up a bit. Then Harry told Hermione and Ron about his encounter with Draco, but they didn’t seem interested. 

“Yeah, he’s sneaking around, but if he gets himself killed in the forest, I won’t complain,” Ron mumbled and looked away to evade Hermione’s chiding looks. 

“He doesn’t deserve that. But he can’t do anything dangerous there,” she said and they dropped the subject.

Harry couldn’t forget it though and kept watching Draco for the rest of the month. He seemed quiet and subdued and often used excuses to get away from the other Slytherins. One day, he appeared to Transfigurations in wet clothes – it had been raining again during the night – and dark circles around his eyes. He was sent to the Headmaster but nothing changed. 

When Harry prepared to go in search of the fluxweed the second time, he almost wished he’d meet Draco again.  
The night was better suited for plucking fluxweed. It was warm, the smell of hay lingered in the meadow and the full moon was unnaturally bright. When Harry arrived at the edge of the forest he was on the lookout for a silver head and really found him a few steps away, leaning against a tree trunk and looking at the lake. 

“The water is reflecting the moon,” Draco said without turning.

“Hmm,” Harry answered. 

“It looks so clear. But you only see the moon and not what the water really looks like.”

“What are you talking about, Malfoy?” Harry asked, bemused.

Draco turned to face him. “Everything. Nothing. Looking for another flower for your sweetie?”

Harry blushed. “She’s not my sweetie. And I’m looking for fluxweed if you must know.”

“Fluxweed is over there,” Draco said and tilted his head in the direction of an old broom shed further away from the lake. “It’s blooming.”

Harry went to the shed and really found a big patch of fluxweed, the small pink blossoms almost glowing in the moon light. When he turned around again, his heart almost stopped. Draco had soundlessly followed him and was standing directly in front of him. 

“Don’t scare me like that, Malfoy.” Harry sighed. “You’re behaving strangely lately. What’s the matter with you?”

Draco didn’t back away. “Choices. It’s time to make the choices. And it makes me sick.”

Suddenly Harry felt sobered up. Was Draco talking about what he thought he was?

“It’s not that hard,” Harry said and looked directly into Draco’s eyes. He noticed the dark circles were still there.

Draco laughed bitterly. “You wouldn’t know. You never had to choose.”

Harry didn’t know what to say to that. 

“But you did choose once,” Draco suddenly said. “You chose the Weasel and Gryffindor.”

“You were the one who started bickering,” Harry snapped defensively.

Draco ran his hand through his hair. Harry noticed that it looked nice. Smooth. Not at all sticky. Draco probably had a charm for keeping it in place. Harry caught himself thinking that it might be nice to run his hand through Draco’s hair. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was the closeness again, Harry was flushed and couldn’t concentrate. Maybe he was allergic to Draco. It would be fitting.

“Maybe I like the bickering,” Draco said, imitating Harry’s tone of voice. “By the way, are we talking again?”

“Seems so,” Harry said, with a small smile. “We need to stop that. What will people say?” 

Draco watched him closely. “That we’re running off at night to have our secret Snape fanclub meeting.”

Harry grinned. “Well, he is a sexy bastard.”

Draco just stared. Harry tried to stay serious but after a few seconds he broke out in giggles.

“You do realise I just said that to shock you?” Harry sniggered. “He’s much too old.”

Draco still stared. 

“Well, well, Potter, who knew.”

Harry thought for a bit. “Half of Gryffindor, actually. And a few Ravenclaws. And probably the staff, too.” He got a bit uncomfortable after that. It wasn’t exactly a secret that he liked boys, but still, he hoped Draco wouldn’t run off to the Daily Prophet with that particular piece of information. But it seemed Draco wasn’t interested in running off at all. 

Draco smirked. “In that case, people will think we disappear regularly to shag our brains out. You know, the fine line between love and hate...”

This time, Harry stepped back when Draco approached him, until his back hit the wood of the shed and he was effectively trapped. 

Draco seemed absorbed in his thoughts as he touched Harry’s cheek lightly with one finger. He ran it down Harry’s cheek and neck until Harry shivered. Confused, Harry tried to read in Draco’s eyes what he was thinking, but Draco’s eyes were fixed at his collarbones, where his light touch had wandered.  
Strangely, Harry didn’t mind his caresses at all. Draco looked beautiful in the moon light and everything felt different from when they were in the school. Harry let the fluxweed fall, caught Draco’s fingers and pressed them firmly to his breast. 

“They don’t consider we might just like each other a bit,” Harry said softly. 

Draco lifted his free hand to Harry’s glasses, took them off and threw them into the grass. 

“Hey,” Harry protested weakly, but didn’t retrieve them. Instead he watched as Draco slowly brought his face to his and, surprisingly gently, pressed his lips to Harry’s. Harry wrapped his arms around him and pulled him closer. Their first kiss was innocent and slow, not much more than a press of lips on lips. 

“Let me help you choose,” Harry said and, burying his hand in Draco’s hair, pulled him close for another kiss. Draco pressed his body close to his’ and Harry guided them away from the shed. They fell down on the grass, but they didn’t care at all. They kept kissing and caressing each other until the first rays of sunlight appeared on the lake, dipping the landscape in a reddish glow.  
They retrieved the fluxweed and hurried into the castle, afraid that someone would see them together. A touch to Draco’s cheek was all Harry dared inside the castle. Then they parted in different directions.

Harry couldn’t sleep anymore so he went to have a shower. A very long and private one. When he was finished it was almost time for breakfast and he went down early so he didn’t have to explain his nightly excursion to his room mates. Hermione was already sitting at the table, drinking tea and reading. Harry sat next to her and handed her the still blooming fluxweed. She looked at him closely and exclaimed, “Harry! Who was it?”

Harry didn’t try to act as if he didn’t knew what she was talking about. That just didn’t work with Hermione. He looked over to the Slytherin table, to see if Draco had already arrived and found him happily munching away at a piece of toast. Hermione had followed his gaze and smiled now, almost devilish. 

“I get to tell Ron,” she said and grinned broadly. Harry found she almost looked dangerous. And it was dangerous business too, telling Ron that Harry had gone and snogged his nemesis. 

“Tell me what?” Ron asked, appearing from behind them to grab a roll. Ron, Seamus and Dean sat down and looked expectantly at Harry. 

“Later,” Hermione said and happily buttered her toast.

*

They explained in History of Magic, when the topic of the lesson was boring enough to even lull Binns to sleep. As they were in the middle of a lesson, Ron did not scream or faint or puke, even though he looked like he might do all of these things at once. Finally he managed to throw his hands in the air, as if saying ‘I can’t do anything against it, can I?’ and whispered to Harry “Keep it secret. The others might kill you.”  
But Harry intended to keep it secret anyway. Whatever ‘it’ was. It was exciting and bound to spectacularly fail, but it was theirs. Their precious time yesterday had ended too quickly but Harry didn’t know how to contact Draco. It seemed though, he didn’t need to. During dinner, Draco walked over and threw a badge into Harry’s lap.

“Here, speccy git,” he said nonchalantly and looked challengingly into the crowd. Harry looked down. Underneath the badge a fluxweed blossom was hidden. Harry smiled.

“What’s that?” Ron asked, a bit green again.

“Didn’t he tell you?” Draco asked innocently. “We founded a Snape fan club.”

All Gryffindors on the table looked dumbstruck, except for Ginny, who went a bit red around her ears and looked as if she wanted to join.

“Ah and that,” Draco added as Harry held up the blossom, “is just a friendly flower.”

**Author's Note:**

> I still don't have a beta - if you're interested, leave me a message!  
> This author loves feedback :)


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